Posted
by
Soulskill
on Monday December 12, 2011 @05:52PM
from the compare-features-compare-price-points dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that the Kindle Fire, Amazon's heavily promoted tablet, is less than a blazing success, with many of its early users packing the device up and firing it back to the retailer. A few of their many complaints: there is no external volume control. The off switch is easy to hit by accident. Web pages take a long time to load. There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing and the touch screen is frequently hesitant and sometimes downright balky. Amazon's response was: 'In less than two weeks, we're rolling out an over-the-air update to Kindle Fire.' The only problem with that is many of the complaints are hardware related and no amount of software can fix one of the early blunders: 'The fire is shipped in a box that advertised on the outside of the box exactly what it is. "Hello, you, thief, please come steal me!"' wrote one would-be customer who, as you might guess, had her Fire stolen and was left with the box. This was supposed to be an iPad killer, with its much lower price point, but Apple is tough to beat because most of its mistakes are software-based."

There's very little wrong with the Kindle fire that can't be fixed with software.

I owned one, and returned it. I returned it because I prefer the e-ink screen of the Kindle DX for reading. If you want a tablet, the Fire is fine.

The problem is that the operating system is not ready for release, it feels like it's in a beta state. There's no way to customize most of the things you look at and think "Hmm, I wish I could..."

The volume button position is weird, but you can simply turn the device over and the screen flips. It's no issue. Some people bellyache about the external volume control, but so what? Does that kill a device that comes in a less than half it's competitors' price point?

The Silk browser was reportedly sped up greatly after the first software update - I returned mine before taking it.

The Kindle Fire was rushed out before the OS was ready. A couple updates down the road, it will be a very nice competitor to the iPad.

The issue isn't that it can't be done it's that they typically don't have the incentive to do so. B&N greatly improved the first gen Nook after release. They added a full fledged web browser, greatly improved the page flip speed and generally making it function better than it did on launch.

Realistically, that stuff ought to be done before the product launches, but if the company cares it definitely can be done, you just don't always know where the bug lies, in software or hardware.

Simplistic answer. It's not whether or not they care. Do they have the expertise? Do they design by committee, with everyone and their kid bother sticking their opinion into the mix? Do they have the time? Do they have the money?

The later two boil down to commitment? HP looked at what it would take to compete in the marketplace, and threw in the towel.

First, Android 3.2 is a good tablet operating system, regardless of how many units are shipped. But devices like the EEE Transformer have been very successful.

You can tell how much of a threat Android tablets are to Apple by the "thermonuclear war" Apple has been fighting against them. Android tablets would have shipped a lot more if Apple hadn't used dirty tricks to keep devices like the Samsung tablets from market.

Chortle. That's as good as Amazon stating that the Kindle is a "bestseller." In the first three quarters of 2011 non-iPad tablet sales stood at about 10% of the total (Apple 90%). ASUS had 10% of the 10%, or in other words, Apple outsold the "very successful" EEE 100-to-1.

I'm wondering if the words "very" and "successful" have alternate definitions I'm not aware of...

You can tell how much of a threat Android tablets are to Apple by the "thermonuclear war" Apple has been fighting against them. Android tablets would have shipped a lot more if Apple hadn't used dirty tricks to keep devices like the Samsung tablets from market.

Again, nothing but assertion on your part, with absolutely nothing to back it up other than pure conjecture.

Answer this: what, exactly, do you think Apple is afraid of? If the Galaxy Tab were so dangerous, you'd expect demand for it to be phenomenal, right? Well, reality doe

The volume button position is weird, but you can simply turn the device over and the screen flips. It's no issue. Some people bellyache about the external volume control, but so what? Does that kill a device that comes in a less than half it's competitors' price point?

The most direct competitor to the Kindle Fire is either the B&N Nook Color ($50 more than Fire when Fire was launched, now the same price, lower hardware specs in general, but does have an SD card slot, and many reviews have the Kindle Fire performing worse on many common tasks) and the B&N Nook Tablet (released shortly after the fire, at a $50 higher price point, similar processor specs to the Kindle Fire, but more RAM, local storage, SD card slot, and most head-to-heads I've seen find it performs better overall.)

Neither B&N device has the power button placement issues or lack of external volume controls that the Fire has, either.

Amazon clearly wants people to compare the Fire to the iPad on price, because a not-quite-iPad at half the price sounds like a good value proposition, and the best chance Amazon has at succeeding with the Fire is if that's how people see it, but its closest competitors on price, form factor, and features aren't from Apple.

Which is precisely where apple (usually) succeeds and others fail. Apple would NEVER have released a product in the same state Amazon released the Fire. Generally speaking (and there are most certainly exceptions,) Apple won't release a product until it's "done." Other tech companies really should learn from this example.

I'm often stunned by the crap that modern "consumers" are willing to accept.

There's very little wrong with the Kindle fire that can't be fixed with software.

Providing, of course, that they want to fix it. Both I and my wife have a Kindle 3 , and it's fine at what it does, but except for its form factor, the Fire isn't really a tablet. They're just calling it that because of the buzzword factor

Who are these mythical people that were claiming that this was somehow supposed to be some sort of "iPad killer"?

It think this whole thing is just a bogus false strawman.

Book readers predate the iPad. This is perhaps just a slightly better Book reader and is sized and priced accordingly. I think all of the people whining about "iPad killers" want to set up false expectations and some sort of hollow non-victory.

Book readers predate the iPad. This is perhaps just a slightly better Book reader and is sized and priced accordingly

The Kindle Fire (like the Nook Color and Nook Tablet from B&N) are marketed as tablets (the Nook Color was originally marketed as "the reader's tablet"), and marketing for both the Amazon and B&N devices often includes the e-Ink devices from the same vendors as preferred devices as readers while the LCD devices are pushed as tablets.

I'm conflicted here because the Kindle Fire is not for me; the form factor and CPU are good but I'm going to wait for a 7" pad with an SD card slot. (Other than the overpriced Galaxy.) On the other hand, I used an iPad for a week and gave it back; clearly that overpriced and overhyped device is not for me either. I guess I'm not a fanboi.

I followed some of the links, trying to find where Amazon has called the Fire an "ipod killer", and the only place I can find that phrase used is by various media pundits. (For instance, one PCMag article cites an earlier PCMag article. Wow, we're not CREATING news, are we?)

It appears that Amazon was trying to create a reader on a code base that they don't have to maintain themselves, that was compatible with Kindle content and also had some browsing capability. (Someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong.) I personally think it doesn't have enough memory or expandability to be a serious contender in the tablet marketplace, but that isn't important.

The Nook Color has some issues too. If we had the processor of the Fire and the features of the Color running full Android 3+ including Marketplace instead of dinking around with crippled versions of the OS, at that price point, or even a little more, well, I'd buy one. Some day it'll happen.

The Fire will either succeed (with a much needed firmware update) or it will fail. It doesn't really matter, as there will be alternatives. Some day, someone will take Amazon's idea of not trying to compete with the iPad as a boutique item but actually make a usable tablet for a reasonable price, and it'll really take off. But it'll have to be, you know, usable.

But I'm uncomfortable with "X will be a Y killer" especially when "Y" has a near-hysterically devoted fanbase. Rather, I think there is room in the marketplace for multiple products, including ones for people who are looking for a certain set of capabilities, and ones for people looking for a certain logo engraved on the trendy stainless back.

(And yes, I'm being intentionally provocative, as I found the tone of the parent article irritating and fanboi-ish.)

Get an Archos 80 G9 or Archos 101 G9. The 80 G9 has an 8" screen, way better specs all around than the Fire, Honeycomb (soon to be Ice Cream Sandwich), and you can pick it up on Amazon for only $70 more.

Yes, and you also get to complain to everyone that Ferraris should cost the same as Hyundais, that Ferrari should be put out of business because some people can afford Ferraris but you can't, that Ferrari drivers are immoral and stupid just because they have a higher income than you, and that you're entitled to a free Ferrari anyway (preferably forcibly taken from someone else who bought the Ferrari with their own money).

Apparently you don't recall their launch event. Of course, Amazon probably never used the term "iPad killer", but it's obvious that's the exact market it's targeted at.

And it wasn't only the media. It was countless individuals, like poster here on Slashdot, Gizmodo, Engadget, and any other tech/nerd site, who proclaimed this would kill the iPad this Christmas, due to the fact that it's $200 and (the funniest recurring theme of them all) that it's "open".

This was bolstered by the fact that the Fire was heavily modified, so it shed the stigma of being "just another Android tablet", and became "an Android tablet, redesigned around the user experience".

As usual, the focus has shifted after yet another failure. This time it's about the software update that Amazon is working on. As though somehow this will play out different than every other time we've seen this pattern.

Absolutely. I returned mine because I can't read the New York Times on the Kindle Fire. Why? Because I didn't buy my New York Times subscription from Amazon; I bought it (long ago) from - ta da - the New York Times. Believe me, I tried, I rooted the device; I found an apk from someone's backup and tried downloading that. The New York Times app gets hi-jacked when you try to load it on the Kindle Amazon says, basically, "go away".

And don't get me started on the library books available for the Kindle (not to mention the interface - !!!!)

I would have imagined a great native app to shop on amazon, but it does not exist, soI have to go to the web browser.And while the web browser on an ipad is an enjoyable experience, it's not on a Fire.It's slower, the soft keyboard is less convenient, the experience less snappy and the screen smaller.

The gold box is not well integrated.

The e-mails I receive from Amazon on my ipad/computer are useful, but not integrated. This shouldhave been built as the mother of CRM devices.

The other complaints from users are valid:

a) No privacy, so anyone can see what movies I watched on the main page (so you prefer not bringing it to work)b) The cover flip UI is unusable if you have a lot of books. The iPad is more conveninient. Good luck being able to selectbook number 43 - and selecting the right one is hard. Usually the page flips and it open the next one instead.c) I inverted my fire because I don't find the location of the on/off button convenient, but the login screen doesnot make use of the orientation, so need to log in upside down.

The hardware is lacking a video out for movies (cant't cost that much)There is no external SD slot to expand internal storageSo the device can't be use to view PDF's which I do a lot on my iPad.

So yes, very much v1.0 in both hardware and software. I was hoping it would be more convenient - for exampleto read in the subway - than my ipad but it's not.

Hope Amazon takes feedback and improve their feedback. Will be interesting how long they support the device.

It isn't a general purpose tablet, it is a platform for Amazon's services. If you want to do much non-Amazon stuff you want a general purpose tablet, but like the Kindle if you get all your ebooks and video on demand and apps and store your stuff on Amazon's cloud services then this might be of interest.

In some ways it is similar to the iPad, in that it is locked down in order to make the user Amazon's cash cow. Unlike the iPad it is a cheap low end device and even less general purpose, but some people are quite happy with that. Like Apple's devices they want something that "just works", or more accurately lets them exchange ease of access to stuff for getting locked in to Apple's revenue stream.

No, it's a modern media player. The concept is pretty obvious: Amazon wants a channel through which it can sell you movies, games, and music. The device has a few extras like a web browser - but so does my keyboard Kindle and that's unambiguously an eBook reader.

The iPad is more of a descendant of the PDA. A big, clumsy, locked down, descendant that owes its success more because of the style police than anything else, but that's where Jobs was coming from, wanting a cut down

Yes, the latter has been successful. So are high heeled shoes, which fail every objective test for the usefulness of a shoe. Just saying.

And the iPad is, objectively, the most useful tablet out there. Your analogy is absurd.

You are a nerd. Your analogy should be sneakers vs. boots. Boots are more useful in specific contexts, but not useful in general situations the way sneakers are. You are like a lumberjack saying sneakers (the iPad) are merely successful because people are stupid and blinded by shiny. When the reality is that your needs are not common, and therefore neither is your opinion.

At least have the decency to not denigrate people just because they don't have your nerd cred and like different things than you.

I got a 1st gen iPad a few months ago. Already having an iPhone, not to mention a laptop and a media pc at home, plus a plethora of devices at work, I wasn't sure how much value it would be to me, but I was getting it at a price where I could easily resell it at a profit, so it was a risk free experiment.

Just a few month later, it's become my primary information access device. Be it reading news, streaming ripped DVDs, renting movies, responding to slashdot posts, this is the device I use. It's form factor is great, has battery life to die for, and, as much as I hate the non descript adjective, it "just works"

Mind you it's not a device to get work done on. For that I will always prefer a keyboard and mouse. I've run into nothing that ive thought it should be able to do that it can't, including removing in to servers at the office in a pinch. So, I'd say you should try using it as its meant to be used before knocking it. To say its too locked down to me means you haven't even given it a try before bashing it.

Good at book reading? Sorry it takes a turn for the worse for book reading. The display has a horrible glare to it, it attracts finger prints like its the next big thing, and the page turning is atrocious. You have to very carefully hold the device on the edges to avoid turning the page because the slightest on screen touch could jump you pages, or depending where you press even chapters ahead. The volume control is definitely an annoyance as you have to obstruct your view of whatever your watching or pause it. I also hate the lack of "forward" button. Its easy to press back on accident and there's no forward. When your going through book collections it will not remember your last location in the list forcing you to rebrowse from the beginning after going into a book, plus for a book reading device there's no button to go to the book list other than the home button and then the book list. There's no directory structure or categories for books its all one big jumbo collection with no organization. The apps market place is restricted to amazon app store only and many apps are blocked for fire use for no good reason(like twitter, but i don't use that one). The android market place works perfectly fine on the fire but you have to root the device to get it on there.

The screen can be very sensitive but it doesn't always work, sometimes you have to press something 2 or 3 times, but the very slightest touch elsewhere will trigger something you don't want.

Again, poster was to my mind stating fact. You're not going to compete with Apple by producing a low-cost piece of crap. Just like other people have pointed out that Bentley's and Kia's occupy different places in the market. But too many people took to to the belief this new Kia of tablets would succeed where the others had failed in trying to dethrone the Bentley model. But it's not flamebait to say that in fewer words.

Flamebait is a post that could spark a flamewar, ie a post that is deliberately grating to a certain group of people (for example "Apple is the worst company ever and all the people who buy Apple products are Steve Job zealots" (yeah I suck at flaming). In this example, the people being "flamed" are the people who buy Apple products, since it's a direct attack on their character. Another example would be "All people who run Linux never shower and have greasy beards".

Does the iPad not do that? All tablets (not slate computers) I have seem do not seem to be set up with user accounts.

The iPad has a large number of apps that essentially provide accounts. Plus of course for things like games there is GameCenter, where you can log in as different people.

The iPad also has parental controls safeguarding purchases. The Fire has none; once it's wired to an Amazon account you cannot block purchases (without unlinking the account which also disables some things on the tablet).

The iPad has basically lurched halfway to being a multi-user device, while the Kindle doesn't pretend to be at all to start with.

No, it isn't. Stiff suspension will give you a harsh ride, nothing more. It may help give you good handling on a perfectly smooth road surface with banked turns - ie. a track - but it will give you atrocious handling on practical roads.

You need stiffly-damped suspension with relatively soft springs. Unfortunately lots of people now associate "sporty" with low, excessively stiff suspension (the suspension needs to be stiff because the car has so little ground clearance to begin with any heavy weight in the car will cause it to bottom out). Oh, and let's not forget a loud farty exhaust, that makes it sporty too.

I've driven a few cars with self-levelling suspension (Citroens and Mercedes, and also a Bentley with the cut-down cost-reduced version of the Citroen CX suspension - a horrible compromise but then the Bentley isn't really intended for fast twisty roads). I've also tried ones with active suspension - probably the nicest is the Hydractive system fitted to Citroen XMs and some Peugeot 605s. This actually varies the spring rate by switching in and out an additional "sphere" (gas spring) and damper block depending on how the car is being driven. A car equipped with this suspension system will easily outhandle anything with old bedsprings.

Well obviously it depends on the road surface, but then, German cars are likely engineered for German roads. I agree that if you're only driving on streets in an urban environment, replete with potholes, manholes, constantly grooved pavement and the like, then the only thing you'll get out of a stiff suspension is a harsh ride.

Nonetheless, for other conditions -- "normal" roads -- if your springs are too soft, your car *will* lean (AKA roll), which shifts more of the weight to the outer wheels, and also se

No kidding. Although the argument could be made that even a moderately used BMW will be substantially more than a new Kia. Parenthetically, even a used beemer will probably last longer, so there is price per mile to consider. But more to the point, I've never understood the stigma of buying used vehicles, if they're in good repair. We tend to keep cars throughout their useful life, but we usually start with lease returns. Only 13K or so miles, and usually in nearly new shape

Might as well buy a Kia and complain that it's not as polished of a driving experience as a BMW.

Oddly enough, I rented a Kia several months ago and found it a highly competent car. Didn't have leather seats or seat warmers, but it still accellerated well, was comfortable to ride in and handled well in rain and snow.

As go the Kindle Fire, I saw somewhere there's a planned update for it to address some of the complaints. Once again - Sell now, fix bugs later - as a business model. So this is the future, eh? What next, hand you a box of components you take to a store for them to assemble?

Except by all accounts, nearly none of these problems exist for the Nook Color which is the same price. The Nook Color is slower than an iPad, but it is generally responsive and fairly well polished, especially after a year of updates. The Kindle Fire by comparison is a shoddy rushed product.

So this is like buying a Kia when you could have gotten a better Hyundai for the same price.

With the Nook Color, you don't have access to any content delivered by Amazon, such as their streaming video and movie service

Fair point. You can easily side-load the Amazon Video and Kindle Android Apps onto the Nook, but then again you will eventually be able to root the Kindle as well, so it is fairest to compare the device in their stock state.

you wouldn't be able to access any existing Amazon content you own (such as books)

You consider that an advantage of the Kindle hardware, I consider it a disadvantage of the entire Amazon ecosystem.

and you wouldn't get their accelerated browser (which supposedly works well now that they've fixed it).

The Nook browser works better even without offloading the task to a server, so that's not an advantage.

(It's also $50 more expensive, for what that is worth)

The Nook Color is the same price, and has better responsiveness and ba

I don't quite get the fuss. I own the Fire. I knew the limitations when I bought it, and expected it to have a few bugs, which it does. I use it all the time, and pretty happy for my 200 bucks worth. I didn't expect it to keep up with a quad core box, or even the iPad, I expected it to display books, show movies, do light surfing, play casual games, all of which it does ok. It *does* need some updates to the software to work the bugs out, but every computer I have ever bought needed both hardware BIOS upgrades and OS upgrades, so the idea that a new to the market tablet has a few bugs shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone.

If anything, people were oversold on what the tablet was. It was exactly what I expected, and I'm guessing it was exactly what most people expected since the majority of owners are happy with it. What I'm finding is several publications talking bad about the tablet, but the owners I know are all happy. Go figure.

Ugh, now I am that parent. I ordered my daughter a Nook Simple Touch ($99 E-Ink reader) for Christmas this year because (1) she really likes to read, (2) reading is the only thing I want her to do on it, and (3) $99 is about my upper limit for a portable electronic device for a kid. But now her friend has an iPad and all the other kids are awestruck by it. I used to have my daughter pretty well brainwashed against i-devices (she would say, "don't call my mp3 player an iPod!) but peer influence is so much stronger than parental as they get older.

anyone who thinks they're going to get a 200 dollar product to replace a 500 dollar+ one is delusional.

Or involved, however tangentially, in the tech field. Like a/. reader. Where the "old $500+ thing" is supposed to be "$200" after a rather short time.

Kind of like how my new TV would have sold for about 10x what I just paid for it many years ago. Or I can't even buy a 4 GB SSD, but if they were out there, an extrapolation of current prices shows they'd sell for about a 50th what I paid for mine some years ago.

Its interesting that the latest ipod touch sells at exactly the same price as my ancient first

i-devices don't seem to drop in price like everything else in the tech world, they just gain in performance.

That's because i-devices are made by one supplier. When they start selling the next model, they discontinue the previous. They're removed from the market before their price begins to appreciatively decrease.

it has been on every frigin tech news site. Sicker yet of all the frigin people complaining about a $200 dollar device because they think it should be as polished and as feature rich as a $500+ device. The Fire is awesome at what it was designed for, consuming media at a budget. I think it was all the hype about the "iPad killer" and everyone was expecting so much more.

Well, yeah. From the moment of its announcement til now, it's been heralded as the most serious competitor to the iPad yet. Nevermind that this was said before a single product had shipped, or even a single reviewer had gotten one to write up about. So of course consumers are going to buy into it thinking that it'll do just as good of a job, if not better, as the iPad at every task they want to use it for.

That's something that Apple has figured out that others are still struggling with.

There are tons of people who will happily spend $500+ on a toy once or twice a year. They're very happy with their iPads. There are lots of people who won't spend $200 on a toy. They're not tablet customers at the moment. The number of people who have rational expectations, will spend $200 on a toy known to be more limited than the $500 toy, but who won't spend $500 on the iPad is... small.

Large segments of my life, theres no way I could afford to blow $200 on a toy or even a useful $200 tool simply because there's no way I could scrape up that kind of cash. So who cares about the ipad or the fire. The question is more like "homemade mac n cheese" or "homemade pizza". Medical insurance would have been nice in my 20s as a college student, but crazy me, I decided to gamble I'll stay healthy, and eat instead. I'm sure if I stopped eating I'd soon need the health insurance.

Large segments of my life, basically the last 15 years or so, I can blow $500 on a toy without blinking too hard (as long as I don't make a regular habit of doing this kind of shopping weekly or monthly, I can do it without blinking, anyway). Years of shopping when I was poor at walmart taught me the whole "penny wise pound foolish" thing. So I don't buy junk, I'd rather wait a couple months and save for an ipad than buy something inferior. Which is exactly what I did WRT buying an ipad.

The interval of my life where I could afford to spend $200 on a toy, but cannot afford to spend $500 on a toy... Honestly, I donno, like maybe two whole weeks of my life? The two weeks between getting my first "real job" paycheck catching up on past bills etc and getting my second "real job" paycheck? Those two weeks would have been a great time to buy a Kindle Fire. The rest of my life I was either out of the market entirely, or I'm buying the gold standard aka the ipad.

Pretty much people are either cash flow negative or scraping along the bottom just barely not drowning for now, or they're cash flow positive and little expenses like this are no big deal... To me, as a homeowner, a big expense is replacing the water heater, $2000 of repair work. Or my beautiful $6000 roof job including replacing the water soaked attic insulation quickly before it molds. Or my $800 new dishwasher. Those are big expenses. Trying to excite me with an also ran for $200 instead of $500 isn't really... exciting. Like trying to get me to buy the 25 cent case screws on my desktop instead of the turned brass thumbscrews holding my case together that cost about a buck each... obviously I spend the buck...

Volume buttons aren't exactly 'feature rich'. I had a hands on and yes, I could tell the touch capability was worse than my Android phone, but I thought it sufficient and understandable given the price point. Given the frequency and urgency that frequently comes with volume adjustment made the lack of volume control a deal breaker however.

Sicker yet of all the frigin people complaining about a $200 dollar device because they think it should be as polished and as feature rich as a $500+ device.

Many of the articles I've seen have been noting that while it's been hyped as an iPad killer, not only is it not in that league, its also got some work to do to catch up with the $250 Nook Tablet from B&N.

The iPad comparison is one that Amazon has invited because it would rather be granted passes based on how much cheaper it is than the iPad than be

It's not that you cannot prevent people from using the device (lock the device).
The problem is that the device is not sharable (in the family).
Here is why I returned mine:
- No password protection for purchases - anyone can push the "buy" button for digital purchases (books, magazines, music, videos, apps) and it immediate gets purchased without prompting for password. There isn't even an "are you sure?" prompt. Imagine this in the hands of a 6 year-old.
- Last browsed pages stay first in the carousel, with page preview - anybody can see, right there on first page, what I browsed last.
All this can be fixed with software, and I may buy it again when it gets fixed, but until then iPad rules the home.

There's the fundamental disconnect. From my perspective, I don't accept the premise that your issue with the basic functionality of the device is something that should be considered "broken" per se. In fact, if the default behavior were as you wanted it, I would consider it to be a negative. We simply have differing opinions on how personal such a device should actually be.

Indeed, I do imagine this in the hands of a six-year-old, and that would be a nightmare. Thankfully, it's password-protected, because it

Umm, which tablet currently available in the marketplace *does* sport an OS that is easily shared? I'll grant you the password protection for digital purchases, but the rest is par for the course for tablet devices.

You can not change physical switch position, but with software you can change how long you need to keep switch in specific position until it will do something. So you can fix most of the problems with software when problems are that device is turned off or put on sleep mode by accident touch.

Of course software can not add a external volume buttons, but with software you can bind some existing buttons to work as such (if there is such buttons). Or you can add a easy to access virtual button to offer those functions. It is more a hack but can work for many.

The sensitivity of touch screen can be fixed with software, as software rules again how the input data is being used. Better to have very sensitivite input touch screen and then slow down outpus what with software.

What comes to privacy, well, that can be fixed with software as well, place PIN code or something similar. Add lock to every application and make a easy way to delete history of web browsing or book history etc.

Having played with the touchscreen a lot at this point, I dont think the apparent lack of sensitivity has anything to do with the lack of sensitivity. Looks to me like scrolling operations tend to drift near the end and not quite snap the screen or objects into position. When that happens a tap is unresponsive. Gestures work fine. It's still annoying, but I'd bet money that it isnt hardware and that it needs a software tweak. After reading the reviews I expected a lot worse.

You're missing the point, this isn't about what you are doing with the tablet while a kid is in the room.

It displays a history of what you have been doing when you start it up as a carousel of images so that you can go back to the book you were reading or the website you were browsing quickly next time you pick it up

The problem is, if the tablet is used by more than one person, is it really approapriate that everyone sees what you've been reading/watching/br

The browser was actually worse than I expected, however I still keep the Fire on the breakfast table for catching up on email. Why? Because it is very one hand friendly. That form factor is great for just holding one handed while eating with another. I know it sounds silly to some, but I like tend to read by holding a paper or such in my left hand it is sized just right to do so. The iPad actually doesn't work so well because of is size.

The Fire arrives configured for Amazon One Click purchases, and the option to disable this does not work. Anyone who picks up your Fire will be able to order anything they like without any password, PIN, or other attempt to verify the purchase being made.

Was this article funded by Apple? It's very biased, as demonstrated by the fact that they cite the 22% of people who don't like the Fire rather than the 88% who clearly do. Even if _every_ one of those 22% gave it one star and _every_ one of the other 88% gave it only 4 stars, it's still a 3.75 rating.
My wife got one a while back and she loves it. Sure, it's not an iPad, but it's also only $199, and it fits in a good-size pocket. It's a great little tablet for the price of two nice dinners. I sill prefer the real e-ink, but for getting all the additional tablet features, I'd say it's a pretty good compromise.
Sure, it could use some improvements, but its the first generation, and it does what its advertised to do. Anyone used to Android should have no problem with it.

Was this article funded by Apple? It's very biased, as demonstrated by the fact that they cite the 22% of people who don't like the Fire rather than the 88% who clearly do.

When I read consumer reviews, it's always the negative reviews that have the most useful information. And FWIW, 22% dislike rate is pretty damn high. Over one-fifth of the purchasers are unhappy with their purchase? Ouch. That's quite a hit to brand reputation.

The complaints I have are minor. It can take a little bit for it to connect to a wifi network, but that's not a huge deal. Sometimes, it's a little sensitive in registering taps, but that's once again not a big issue. The carousel is a little too speedy for my liking, but I rarely use it, and when I do, it's usually just to open the very most recent thing I've opened.

I haven't noticed any real speed issues with it; at least, nothing show-stopping. Books read fine. If you're trying to fly through a bunch of pages like you're thumbing through a book to find a certain page, sure, it can slow down there, but I almost never do that. Games & streaming content perform perfectly.

I didn't notice any real issue with the browser; I was able to load websites faster on my Kindle than a local iPad owner, over the same wifi connection.

Typing is easy for me; in landscape mode it can be slightly difficult, but not unusable. I usually use portrait mode, anyway.

The lack of physical volume controls doesn't bother me at all. It's stupid-easy to get to, and keeps me from accidentally raising/lowering volume.

I do wish I could change the lock screen photo(s) easily, but that's not exactly important.

Regarding the lock/power button, I have NEVER accidentally tripped it, and I'm using it on a daily basis in a variety of situations.

If you look at reviews on Amazon, there are a good number of 4 and 5 star reviews; more than 3 or less.

All these negative reviews focus too much on the lack of polish of the UI is compared to the actual usefulness of the device. It's UI lags behind iOS, but it is about the same as a mid range Android device, which are widely successful.

I own the Kindle Fire, and its flaws are really just minor annoyances with device, but the overall experience is good enough. I can surf the Internet, watch videos and play graphic intense games no problem and the small form factor makes it comfortable to hold in one hand. Just because you occasionally have to double tap on a button or experience a 1/2 second lag every once in a while, doesn't mean that the $200 tablet is a failure.

This device was never intended to be an iPad killer. Amazon itself said as much. The linked article makes it sound like it was set to be an iPad killer by "important people," but the link just links back to another pcmag.com article. What a joke.

The fire is not intended, has not been intended to be an iPad killer. It's a cheap tablet device that does what many people need it to do without all the extras that the iPad has that some people will never use. It's one of the primary reasons I returned my iPad and got a Color Nook and rooted it - the Nook did everything I wanted a tablet to do at a fraction of the price. If I were to do the same thing today, I would buy a fire instead of a Nook.

I have as many Apple devices as the company (literally 5 or more computers, three ipods in the house, and an ipad). I like their products a lot and I love the ipad for web browsing and such. I use it daily.

I bought a Kindle Fire last Friday and I think it's great. Is it an iPad? Well, no. But it's a nice device that doesn't have to be compared to the iPad. It stands on its own and is a fine device. It actually fits in some of my pants pockets, so I like the size even if the screen's a little smaller. It plays Angry Birds and a lot of other games, it has nice built-in software (I like Silk), and I have no problem changing the volume on-screen. The batter also lasts a long time.

I feel like this comparison is similar to the comparisons made between the iPad and some low-end netbooks or notebooks when the iPad first came out. The iPad was a different device but quite useful, and now the Kindle Fire is also a slightly different device but also quite useful. It might not be what every wants, but I think it's a fine device.

I am extremely happy with my Kindle Fire, far more than I would be with an iPad if someone had given me one for free. The form factor is right for the airplane and for reading in bed, much more useful for what I want it for than a 10" tablet would be.

It's true that exactly like the iPad, the iPhone, every Android phone, every other Android tablet, HP's ill fated WebOS tablet, most default OSX, Linux, and Windows installation with auto-login enabled, etc. that there is no privacy protection. It's a single user device, and anyone who sees the device can pretty easily determine what its user was doing on it recently (and in general). That is indeed perhaps a weakness, and I wouldn't mind having Android devices (especially tablets, but perhaps phones also) be multiuser (likewise for the iWhatever stuff).

During my most recent plane trip with my Kindle Fire, which unlike an iPad fits in my pocket, I:

* Read a variety of documents sent to the device from web pages using the Firefox Readability plugin* Read some PDF documents* Read (part of) some books that I purchased from Amazon* Watched a video that I downloaded directly onto the device from a 3rd party website (in anticipation of flight)* Listened to some music I had put locally onto the device* Played a few moves of Words with Friends before takeoff* Played Plants vs. Zombies while in flight* Checked GMail and Facebook and Google+ quickly before takeoff (using Wifi connection to hotspot)

In every respect that I can see, not least including price, but even more so including Freedom, the Kindle Fire is a far better device than the iPad is.

It means that the users make the mistake of using the device incorrectly.

For instance, if you recall, Apple users held their iPhones incorrectly, thereby causing antenna malfunction. Steve Jobs (RIP, Hallowed be His Name) was forced to publicly instruct iPhone users in the correct method of holding their iPhones, since their ignorance was not surmountable through regular support channels.

Another example would be with the early iPod. As you recall, users were not treating their iPods as the holy relics they rightfully should have been treated as, and instead subjected them to all kinds of profane abuse -- like putting them in their pocket with their keys. This resulted in desecration of the viewing screen on those iPods, again, totally caused by the user.

And, lest ye forget, it would be remiss of me not to mention the abhorrent failure of users to recharge their iPod batteries every two hours when using iOS4.

Seriously, though, Apple gets a pass on a lot of mistakes because they do a lot of things right. They also have major brand loyalty, which is kind of unique in the gadget world, where most people judge on features, not on styling or brand ("no wireless... less space than a Nomad... lame" is the relevant quote, I believe).

I've been boycotting Amazon ever since they started bullying states into dropping sales taxes.

I think they're just trying to keep from having to report taxes in thousands of local tax districts - many of which span zip codes, making it difficult and expensive to comply. Amazon does support a national proposal to simplify and streamline state sales tax collection.

I bought my girlfriend a Kindle and a couple gift cards, but aside from maybe a few more books for her Kindle, Amazon won't be getting any more of my money.

That's not much of a boycott - by buying a Kindle you've locked her into purchasing further e-books from Amazon (unless she buys all unprotected content that can be viewed on the Kindle). You should have gone for a Nook.

Thieves take any and every box. Doesn't matter what's on the outside or what time of year. Sometimes they get gourmet cheeses, sometimes electronics, sometimes prescription drugs... there's almost never anything bad in a box. Instruct your local UPS/Fedex/USPS shop to have a blanket-hold on your items. It beats never getting them.